Small Government in Action

    As a new resident of the Republic of Texas I am required by law to get my car registered in Texas within 30 days and a Texas State Drivers license within 30-90 days to be all nice and legal. So now, over a year after I moved, I finally bought into this entire "being legal" sham and got my Drivers License and car registered.
    I arrived 8:30 to the DPS to finally get my license only to find all the rumors about lines being much worse than I heard. There were literally people outside the building in a winding line. Easily 70 people waiting to get inside and even more inside, seated waiting to be called. Luckily Texas is so far up north that you don't have to worry about things like Heat and Sun in August. The heat and humidity was rather bad but I imagine it gets worse in the afternoon when the Vultures come out from hiding.

One Side of the Office

   As we got nearer and nearer the door the 20 something in front of me pondered aloud what lay inside. I think he was getting delusional from the sun. He thought it would be a straight shot to getting the picture taken and card in hand. I being more of a glass is half empty person suspected something of a theme park layout much like Universal Studios where you walking winding feeder lot lines on the outside of the line to a gate. On the other side of that gate that has been hidden for the 2 hours you were in line there is....more line and wait. By then you've passed the point of no return and stick it out for another hour.
   We crossed that point, the door and found chairs, rows of chairs all with asses planted firmly in them. People who were near the front of the line when I arrived were still sitting and waiting to be called.  Universal Studios Florida might have modeled itself on this place if not for the chairs. I slowly approached the desk with my handful of papers establishing that I did indeed live in Texas and I was in fact a resident to be given a ticket with a number to be called later.
    After that it was only another 45 minutes till my number got called, then another 60 minutes while I drove to the Social Security Office to get an affidavit swearing to the fact that I do indeed have such a thing and am a Full Blooded US citizen. I'd say all in all I spent at least 5 hours trying to get my Texas State Drivers License and after all that I still didn't get the real thing but an 8x10 piece of paper with my photo and all my info. A temporary I.D. until the real thing arrives in the mail in 7-10 days.
    I want to say I am not blaming the men and women (mostly women) that work at these offices they are doing the best that they can and that is very apparent. It isn't a question of how they do their job it is one of (Wo)man Power.I can't even imagine how many people file through that office in a day and all those office workers are probably insane by Friday afternoon wanting to slap citizen in the head with a swingline stapler. Whacko against the side of the head, above the ear.